Trump / Musk (other than DOGE)

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donbosco said:
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The clipping is from April 19, 1978 and refers to the Yes vote on the Panama Canal by U.S. Senator Robert Morgan and the No cast by Jesse Helms.

The day of the vote I had a Poli Sci seminar taught by Professor Federico Gil. The course was ‘Latin America in World Affsirs.” Most of y’all must have been acquainted with the college lore of the late instructor, i.e., students wait 5 minutes for a tardy graduate teaching assistant, 10 for an assistant prof, 15 for an associate, and 20 for a full professor.

That day, Dr. Gil was still not there at the 20 minute mark. So respected was he that no one left.

When he did arrive, over half an hour late, he apologized and thanked us for staying. He explained that he had been delayed by a phone call from a North Carolina Senator seeking advice on the Panama Canal vote. Which one needed no explanation.
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Jesse explaining that he voted no on the Panama Canal treaty because it would be another retreat from the world stage.

And today, the new Jesse Helms are all too willing to retreat from Ukraine and NATO. Amazing how much the Republicans have changed over the past 46 years.
 
Calheel said:
Jesse explaining that he voted no on the Panama Canal treaty because it would be another retreat from the world stage.

And today, the new Jesse Helms are all too willing to retreat from Ukraine and NATO. Amazing how much the Republicans have changed over the past 46 years.
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Jesse was always down for some overseas adventures.
 
Geisterfahrer said:
Jesse was always down for some overseas adventures.
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Indeed. When I was much, much younger in the late 80s I attended a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of which Jesse was a member, and listened while Jesse and his staff made a presentation about the dangers of Communism in Central America. They had made all kinds of fancy charts with colorful graphs and arrows and so forth, and he held court and pointed at the charts occasionally and fulminated for a good while.

What struck me was the general lack of interest from the other Senators, Republican or Democrat - some even left during his presentation and came back after it was over, not because they were snubbing him, but rather it seemed to me because they had more pressing business - and the clear, general air of amusement among the committee staff and reporters and others present among the listeners that "Ol' Jesse" was on another one of his patented anti-Communist tirades. They clearly didn't take him seriously, and it was also obvious that didn't bother him a bit.
 
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Duke Mu said:
The Border/immigration

Inflation

TikTok/Chyna

Peace with Russia



All four pillars of the Trump campaign are over before the administration has even begun.

I guess they'll have to focus on trannies.
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Don't laugh - as their other goals collapse they may very likely decide to dig down on the culture war stuff, such as going after transgender rights at the national level. That's what animates most of their base anyway, at least other than tax cuts (which many of them are unlikely to actually see).
 
gtyellowjacket said:
My doubts are because Elon would have gotten those same loopholes if Harris had won. So would Trump. Musk has gotten them before both with and without Trump. Musk has gotten the contracts for SpaceX with and without Trump too.

I think the reason Elon backed Trump is he wanted the power and especially the attention. I think the reason Trump is putting up with Elon is because Trump wants X to buy Truth Social eventually.
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Harris was very clear that she planned on reversing the Trump tax cuts of 2016 by having the ultra-rich pay more in taxes. Her tax savings were going to go to the middle class, in large part footed by the wealthy pitching in more. She spoke about it non-stop during her campaign. Musk was going to pay more in taxes under a Harris administration. This is really quite simple.
 
UNCatTech said:
So, trump, musk, and vivek are not elites?

You're a lawyer that lives in Buckhead, one of the priciest ever not fulmost affluent parts of Atlanta, you don't believe that the average Joe sees you as elite?

I believe you actually proved @wmheel1287 point about voters not thinking.
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Duke Mu said:
Don't forget the Grifting! Mugs, pens, t-shirts, fake coins, Bibles made in China, etc.
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Despite all of my hints, I didn’t get any Trump merch for Christmas. My daughter did give my wife a personalized Trump mug and a Trump-dressed-like-an-elf ornament so at least I can enjoy that on our tree next year.
 
Ramrouser said:
Keep thinking that way as that's a sure fire way to regain power.

The US is simply following the Western World's general rejection of governments ruled by Elites with their excessive regulations, wokeness, nanny state rule making, green agenda and open borders. You see this change throughout Western Europe and Canada. A lot of this is in reaction to the heavy handedness of these governments during COVID. Normal people of the World Unite!
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Is this a joke?
 
WaynetheDrain said:
Harris was very clear that she planned on reversing the Trump tax cuts of 2016 by having the ultra-rich pay more in taxes. Her tax savings were going to go to the middle class, in large part footed by the wealthy pitching in more. She spoke about it non-stop during her campaign. Musk was going to pay more in taxes under a Harris administration. This is really quite simple.
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Sure. Just like he did under Biden.
 
1. i don't think its clear what elon's motivations are or have been. he seems pretty red-pilled. maybe its an act. but there's no financial incentive for him to back the neo-nazi party in germany and yet . . .

2. for that reason, sununu's statement is ridiculous. we don't know. i suspect elon is mostly looking to protect spacex's dominance and also he wants to maintain his security clearance which would have almost certainly been revoked by kamala. but maybe he's just riding his own jock and feeling the power. or maybe he's even more transactional than i am suggesting.
 
superrific said:
this was a potemkin "offer." it was never intended to be accepted. it was intended to give putin cover by making it look as though trump was trying. though, not too hard. under that plan, russia keeps the land it took; ukraine has to stay out of nato; and russia gets free of sanctions while giving up . . . . nothing. hmm.

although, it would be funny for ukraine to accept that deal, wait for hostilities to die down, and then join nato in three years and tell putin to suck their dicks.
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I guess. Let's not pretend that Trump has any strategic plan, or a concept thereof. There's something transactional at play...like stalling or some forgiveness for the $1B Trump still owes to oligarchs.
 
evrheel said:
Is this a joke?
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No matter how many times it is pointed out to conservatives that polls consistently show that a "green agenda" and "wokeness" are actually quite popular with a majority of Americans, or that those "nanny state" regulations during covid actually helped to save people's lives, and that what Republicans mean by rolling back "excessive regulations" are rolling back things like polio vaccine mandates and the FDA that help to provide sanitary food, they still keep posting this stuff, not only here but on social media and elsewhere. It's the usual case of if they say it over and over enough it becomes true, at least to them.

Also, I thought Trump won because of the economy, not all of this culture war stuff. It would be nice if conservatives could make up their minds as to what gave Dear Leader his victory (by all of 1.3% in the popular vote, one of the closest ever). In some posts it's the economy, but in another thread it's "wokeness" and "excessive nanny state regulations" and in another thread it's Democrats promoting "transgenderism." Whatever works at the moment I guess.
 
Second bite at the condolences Apple (I assume by his staff) was actually quite decent.

 
From August but still relevant - Musk believed in his own brand of deficit spending when it came to acquiring Twitter:

Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover Is Now the Worst Buyout for Banks Since the Financial Crisis​

Loans of around $13 billion have remained ‘hung’ for nearly two years, bringing in interest payments but weighing on banks’ balance sheets​


Gift link —> https://www.wsj.com/tech/elon-musks...cb?st=9nkmED&reflink=mobilewebshare_permalink

“… The seven banks involved in the deal, including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, lent the money to the billionaire’s holding company to take the social-media platform, now named X, private in October 2022. Banks that provide loans for takeovers generally sell the debt quickly to other investors to get it off their balance sheets, making money on fees.

The banks haven’t been able to offload the debt without incurring major losses—largely because of X’s weak financial performance—leaving the loans stuck on their balance sheets, or “hung” in industry jargon. The resulting write-downs have hobbled the banks’ loan books and, in one case, was a factor that crimped compensation for a bank’s merger department, according to people involved with the deal.

The value of the loans to Musk quickly soured after the $44 billion acquisition was completed. But new analysis shows how their persistent underperformance has put the deal in historic territory. …”
 
“… Steven Kaplan, a professor of finance at the University of Chicago who has tracked such deals since the 1980s, said Twitter isn’t only the biggest hung deal by dollar amount since the 2008 financial crisis but one of the biggest of all time.

“The loans have weighed on the banks for much longer than other hung deals we’ve seen,” he said.

The banks that agreed to underwrite a deal that even Musk said was overvalued did so largely because the allure of banking the world’s richest person was too attractive to pass up, according to people involved in the deal. Musk and other investors ponied up around $30 billion to buy the company, giving the banks some cushion in case things were to go wrong.

The banks—which also include Barclays, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, BNP Paribas, Mizuho and Société Générale—have been able to collect hefty interest payments from the X loans. They are generally for seven to eight years and carry rates several percentage points above the benchmark for investment-grade companies. And the banks could still ultimately be made whole if X is able to cover its interest obligations and repay the principal when the loans mature.

“At some price, they could sell it at a loss, but with Musk they could end up receiving 100 cents on the dollar, if things pan out,” said Kaplan. …”
 
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